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Vince Frost (LongLunch event 61)

In the last few months I’ve taken great interest in the popular design talks and events organised by LongLunch and last night (14th of November) they held their 61st event at the Glasgow School of Art hosted by the brilliant graphic designer, Vince Frost! I had no knowledge of him until now, but because I enjoyed the last LongLunch event I attended with United Visual Artists and the good things I heard about him, I decided to attend the event.

Having started in graphic design in London in the early 1990s, Vince Frost achieved notable success with Pentagram, becoming their youngest ever associate at age 27, before setting up Frost* Design in 1994, where he produced outstanding awards-conquering work for organisations including Nike, Laurence King, Zemba Magazine, The Independent and The London Design Festival. Famed for his visionary approach and eye for bold, energetic typographic composition, Frost relocated to Sydney in 2003, where he now runs the internationally focused Frost* collective. Frost has forged a career out of designing success and believes that design is fundamental to every aspect of life. If harnessed properly, it has the power to positively transform not just business, but the way we live.

At the event Vince Frost spoke about his life in design and how it influenced the principles and design of his new book, “Design your Life”. The main point of his talk, or even as his book, is to think about your life generally and not just in design, and always try to have a positive outlook on opportunities and your choices. He summed it up by saying that we should follow the following steps:

Learn – try to have a childlike perspective on subjects that you might not even have knowledge about! Ask lots of questions and give genuine interest as you collect all the data you need to go forward. You can’t make bricks without clay!

Think – Swap “it’s not possible” for “it could happen”. Organise your lifestyle to help you think better; Vince said he started taking strolls through a park at 5:00 in the morning to help him process ideas.

Create – Eat the frog! Get the worst stuff out of the way and finish on a high note. Succeed by failing and trying again. And become the yes-man to opportunities!

His talk was awesome! At the start he said he wasn’t that inspiring to listen to, but actually was more genuine than other talks I’ve attended. He was humorous and relaxed as he spoke making it seem like the casual chat with us rather than a lecture, and he spoke about trials he had to go through and how he overcame them with his passion for design and perseverance! It was fun to listen to and if he comes back to the UK for more talks I’ll definitely attend!

As well as the talk from Vince, everyone was given a “Design your Life” poster (approximately A2 size) printed by Aston Screenprint on 175gsm Colorplan Natural from G.F.Smith (above). And afterwards attendants were able to purchase his beautiful new book and get it autographed. I love the minimalist typographic illustrations throughout it; they have such a bold impact using typography alone! It reminded me of the typographic illustrations in “Popular Lies in Graphic Design” and the ideas behind my Swatch booklet project at college. I was going to speak to him when he signed my book and say how awesome his talk was, but unfortunately kinda bottled it!

That’s 2 LongLunch events I’ve attended now! I knew about the Edinburgh event but tickets went so quickly that by the time I found out I was free, it was sold out! I hope to attend more talks from LongLunch and Vince Frost in the future; just as long as I get the ticket on time! Below are some more of Vince Frost’s work which caught my eye especially as well! You can see their websites at vincefrost.com and frostcollective.com.au or visit their other pages on Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest!